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Reflection Quotes

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Reflection Quotes

“In painting, whether colour reflection is apparent or not, every hue must echo neighbouring hues, so that homogeneity may be attained.”

May Painting Reflection Colour Echoes Hue Homogeneity

Author:Walter J. Phillips

“Journeys are the midwives of thought. Few places are more conducive to internal conversations than a moving plane, ship or train. There is an almost quaint correlation between what is in front of our eyes and the thoughts we are able to have in our heads: large thoughts at times requiring large views, new thoughts new places. Introspective reflections which are liable to stall are helped along by the flow of the landscape. The mind may be reluctant to think properly when thinking is all it is supposed to do.”

Source: The Art of Travel

“There is, however, no advantage in reflections on the past further than may be of service to the present. For the future we must provide by maintaining what the present gives us and redoubling our efforts; it is hereditary to us to win virtue as the fruit of labour, and you must not change the habit, even though you should have a slight advantage in wealth and resources; for it is not right that what was won in want should be lost in plenty.”

Want Giving Should May Past Winning Lost Wealth Effort Virtue Habit Reflection Resources Advantage Should Have Fruit Plenty Labour Maintaining Hereditary

Book:The Peloponnesian War

Source: The Peloponnesian War

“A natural talent is required; for, when Nature opposes, everything else is in vain; but when Nature leads the way to what is most excellent, instruction in the art takes place, which the student must try to appropriate to himself by reflection, becoming an early pupil in a place well adapted for instruction. He must also bring to the task a love of labor and perseverance, so that the instruction taking root may bring forth proper and abundant fruits.”

Way Trying Wells May Art Natural Talent Students Becoming Reflection Labor Tasks Roots Fruit Perseverance Vain Excellent Appropriate Instruction Pupils Adapted Natural Talent

Book:Selected Works

Source: Selected Works

“To be disciplined does not mean being silent, abstaining, or doing only what one thinks one may undertake without risk; it is not the art of eluding responsibility; it means acting in compliance with orders received, and therefore finding in one's own mind, by effort and reflection, the possibility to carry out such orders. It also means finding in one's own will the energy to face the risks involved in execution.”

Thinking Mind May Mean Doe Art Faces Order Energy Effort Acting Responsibility Risk Possibility Involved Findings Reflection Silent Execution Risk It Compliance Abstaining

Author:Ferdinand Foch

“Do we regard language as more public, more ceremonial, than thought? Just as family men condemn the profanity on the stage that they use constantly in conversation, in the same way we may look to written language as an idealization rather than a reflection of ourselves.”

Men Way Looks May Use Language Written Stage Conversation Reflection Regard Profanity Family Man Written Language

Book:States of Desire Revisited: Travels in Gay America

Source: States of Desire Revisited: Travels in Gay America

“It's (the lack of communication between the people in his paintings, ed.) probably a reflection of my own, if I may say, loneliness. I don't know. It could be the whole human condition.”

People Ifs Knows Humans May Whole My Own Conditions Loneliness Painting Communication Reflection Human Condition Lack Of Communication

Author:Edward Hopper

“Since there is no telling in advance where it may lead, reflection can be seen as dangerous .”

May Dangerous Reflection

Book:Think: A Compelling Introduction to Philosophy

Source: Think: A Compelling Introduction to Philosophy

“The water in the stream may have changed many times, but the reflection of the moon and the stars remains the same.”

May Stars Water Changed Moon Reflection Remains Unity Streams

Author:Rumi

“The world sees only the reflection of merit; therefore when you come to know a really great man intimately, you may as often find him above as below his reputation.”

Knows Men World May Reflection Reputation Merit Great Men Popularity Really Great

Book:The Wisdom of Goethe

Source: The Wisdom of Goethe

“Redundancy of language is never found with deep reflection. Verbiage may indicate observation, but not thinking. He who thinks much says but little in proportion to his thoughts.”

Thinking May Littles Found Language Style Reflection Observation Proportion Redundancy

Author:Washington Irving

“I think that if I get into the habit of writing a bit about what happens, or rather doesn't happen, I may lose a little of the sense of isolation and desolation which abides with me. My circumstances allowing of nothing but the ejaculation of one-syllabled reflections, a written monologue by that most interesting being, myself, may have its yet to be discovered consolations.”

“Instructed by history and reflection, Julian was persuaded that, if the diseases of the body may sometimes be cured by salutary violence, neither steel nor fire can eradicate the erroneous opinions of the mind.”

Ifs Mind May Sometimes Body Opinion History Fire Violence Disease Reflection Steel Roman Empire

Book:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Source: Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

“When the heart is touched by direct experience, the mind may be challenged to change. Personal involvement with innocent suffering, with the injustice others suffer, is the catalyst for solidarity which then gives rise to intellectual inquiry and moral reflection.”

Giving Mind Heart May Suffering Moral Intellectual Reflection Direct Injustice Innocent Touched Solidarity Inquiry Involvement Catalyst

Author:Peter Hans Kolvenbach

“Eloquence is a way of saying things in such a way, first, that those to whom we speak may listen to them without pain and with pleasure, and second, that they feel themselves interested, so that self-love leads them more willingly to reflection upon it.”

Way Feels Firsts May Self Pain Speak Pleasure Self Love Reflection Persuasion Eloquence Without Pain

Author:Blaise Pascal

“It seems certain, that though a man, in a flush of humour, after intense reflection on the many contradictions and imperfections of human reason, may entirely renounce all belief and opinion, it is impossible for him to persevere in this total scepticism, or make it appear in his conduct for a few hours.”

Source: An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

“There is, indeed a more mitigated scepticism or academical philosophy, which may be both durable and useful, and which may, in part, be the result of this Pyrrhonism, or excessive scepticism, when its undistinguished doubts are corrected by common sense and reflection.”

May Philosophy Results Common Doubt Reflection Common Sense Skepticism Scepticism

Book:An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding ; [with] A Letter from a Gentleman to His Friend in Edinburgh ; [and] An Abstract of a Treatise of Human Nature

Source: An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding ; [with] A Letter from a Gentleman to His Friend in Edinburgh ; [and] An Abstract of a Treatise of Human Nature

“Though we cannot totally change our nature, we may in great measure correct it by reflection and philosophy; and some philosophy is a very necessary companion in this world, where, even to the most fortunate, the chances are greatly against happiness.”

Thinking World May Philosophy Chance Human Nature This World Reflection Fortunate Thoughtful Companion Chances Are

Book:Lord Chesterfield's Letters

Source: Lord Chesterfield's Letters

“Never yield to that temptation, which, to most young men, is very strong, of exposing other people's weaknesses and infirmities, for the sake either of diverting the company, or of showing your own superiority. You may get the laugh on your side by it for the present; but you will make enemies by it for ever; and even those who laugh with you then, will, upon reflection, fear, and consequently hate you.”

Source: Lord Chesterfield's Letters

“We have more poets than judges and interpreters of poetry. It is easier to write an indifferent poem than to understand a good one. There is, indeed, a certain low and moderate sort of poetry, that a man may well enough judge by certain rules of art; but the true, supreme, and divine poesy is equally above all rules and reason. And whoever discerns the beauty of it with the most assured and most steady sight sees no more than the quick reflection of a flash of lightning.”

Source: Works, Comprising His Essays, Letters, and Journey Through Germany and Italy: With Notes from All the Commentators, Biographical and Bibliographical Notices &c., &c

“Anita Johnston, Ph.D., author of Eating in the Light of the Moon, taught me to look in the mirror with curiosity rather than fear. So I may look at my reflection and think, 'That's interesting. I wonder why my body seems bigger today than it did yesterday. Maybe it's water weight. Maybe it's my outfit. Or maybe my eyes are just playing tricks on me.' I know it's not possible for me to gain a noticeable amount of weight overnight, so I will go no further than that. I move on with my day without skipping a beat-and definitely without missing a meal.”

“How people see the world is often a reflection of how they see themselves. If they think that the world is just a cesspool of lies and deceit, then they themselves may be full of lies and deceit. Watch out for those people who are always telling you just how corrupt the rest of the world is. As the saying goes, 'It takes one to know one.'”

People Ifs Thinking Knows World May Lying Watches Reflection Deceit

Author:David J. Lieberman

“Attention is riveted on what is tangible, useful, instantly available; the stimulus for deeper thought and reflection may be lacking. Yet human beings have a vital need for time and inner quiet to ponder and examine life and its mysteries... Understanding and wisdom are the fruit of a contemplative eye upon the world, and do not come from a mere accumulation of facts, no matter how interesting.”

“Team, it turned out that Michael Dell wasn't perfect at predicting the future. Based on today's stock market close, Apple is worth more than Dell. Stocks go up and down and things may be different tomorrow but I thought it was worth a moment of reflection today.”

May Different Moments Today Perfect Team Tomorrow Reflection Down And Apples Up And Down Predicting Predicting The Future Dell

Author:Steve Jobs

“The amalgam of psychological attitudes we form is the synthetic complex. It may fall apart quite quickly as further reflection or further experience bears on it, and we may revert to our former judgments, feelings and tendencies.”

May Feelings Form Fall Attitude Bears Judgment Reflection Complexes Tendencies Psychological Former Falling Apart Synthetic

Author:Philip Kitcher

“The worry that unreflective belief acquisition may be unreliable, after all, applies equally to reflective belief acquisition: it too may be unreliable. To my mind, the plausibility of internalist views about justification is dramatically decreased when one becomes vividly aware of what introspection and reflection actually achieve.”

Mind May Belief Views Worry Achieve Reflection Justification Introspection Acquisition Unreliable

Author:Hilary Kornblith

“When we recognise that reflective processes are no more outside the causal net than unreflective processes, and that they are bound by similar constraints, we may come to understand the nature of reflection for the first time.”

Firsts May Process Reflection First Time Bounds Constraints Recognise

Author:Hilary Kornblith

“In general it may be said that the things which we take for granted without inquiry or reflection are just the things which determine our conscious thinking and decide our conclusions. And these habitudes which lie below the level of reflection are just those which have been formed in the constant give and take of relationship with others.”

Thinking Giving May Has Beens Said Lying Levels Reflection Conscious Constant Determine Conclusion Granted Inquiry Give And Take Relationships With Others

Book:Democracy And Education

Source: Democracy And Education

“I just think that also controlling women is a way to control the whole narrative. And so I think when you've oppressed a people for a really long time, you're terrified to give them any power because they may have some reflection of how horrible you've been and you're terrified of being treated that way. All that we want is to be our best selves, but that's hard for them to understand.”

People Thinking Way Want Giving May Long Self Hard Whole Long Time Reflection Horrible Treated Narrative Oppressed Terrified Best Self Really Long Controlling Women

Author:Lizz Winstead

“Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.”

“know that without night there is no day; without lies, no truth;without despair,no hope. Beware above all of hate, but call to its opposite too. For all things have an opposite and, if you choose it, with will and care, you may turn one thing into its reflection.”

Ifs Knows May Care Lying Night Hate Turns One Thing Despair Reflection All Things Opposites You Choose No Hope

Author:David Clement-Davies

“May our daily choices be a reflection of our deepest values, and may we use our voices to speak for those who need us most, those who have no voice, those who have no choice.”

Needs May Use Values Choices Speak Peace Voice Reflection Daily Choices

Author:Colleen Patrick-Goudreau

“When I tell you not to marry without love, I do not advise you to marry for love alone: there are many, many other things to be considered. Keep both heart and hand in your own possession, till you see good reason to part with them; and if such an occasion should never present itself, comfort your mind with this reflection, that though in single life your joys may not be very many, your sorrows, at least, will not be more than you can bear. Marriage may change your circumstances for the better, but, in my private opinion, it is far more likely to produce a contrary result.”

Source: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

“Make time for prayer and reflection; try to understand your value as a man on earth but see, too, your proper place in the scheme of things. It may sound funny to say this, but I have come to see that we are all far more important and less important than we think.”

Thinking Men Trying May Important Earth Values Sound Prayer Reflection Schemes Making Time

Book:Dream When You're Feeling Blue: A Novel

Source: Dream When You're Feeling Blue: A Novel

“The loved object is simply one that has shared an experience at the same moment of time, narcissistically; and the desire to be near the beloved object is at first not due to the idea of possessing it, but simply to let the two experiences compare themselves, like reflections in different mirrors. All this may precede the first look, kiss, or touch; precede ambition, pride, or envy; precede the first declarations which mark the turning point—for from here love degenerates into habit, possession, and back to loneliness.”

Source: The Alexandria Quartet: Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive, Clea

“Why are all reflections lovelier than what we call reality? -- not so grand or so strong, it may be, but always lovelier? Fair as is the gliding sloop on the shining sea, the wavering, trembling, unresting sail below is fairer still...All mirrors are magic mirrors. The commonest room is a room in a poem when I turn to the glass...There must be a truth involved in it, though we may but in part lay hold of the meaning.”

May Stills Reality Turns Strong Rooms Magic Sea Involved Reflection Fairs Mirrors Lays Shining Glasses Sail Trembling Wavering Gliding

Author:George MacDonald

“The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place. It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of Government. But what is Government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?”

Men Should Humans May Government Politics Interest Rights Human Nature He Man Reflection Abuse Connected Devices Federalist Federalist Papers Constitutional Rights

Book:The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788

Source: The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788

“However, if we consider that all the characteristics which have been cited are only differences in degree of structure, may we not suppose that this special condition of organization of man has been gradually acquired at the close of a long period of time, with the aid of circumstances which have proved favorable? What a subject for reflection for those who have the courage to enter into it!”

“No engineer can go upon a new work and not find something peculiar, that will demand his careful reflection, and the deliberate consideration of any advice that he may receive; and nothing so fully reveals his incapacity as a pretentious assumption of knowledge, claiming to understand everything.”

May Science Understanding Knowledge Advice Hard Work Demand Reflection Careful Assumption Consideration Peculiar Engineers Deliberate Pretentious Incapacity New Work

Author:John B. Jervis

“This revelation of the secrets of nature, long mercifully withheld from man, should arouse the most solemn reflections in the mind and conscience of every human being capable of comprehension. We must indeed pray that these awful agencies will be made to conduce to peace among the nations, and that instead of wreaking measureless havoc upon the entire globe, may become a perennial fountain of world prosperity.”

Source: War Speeches: From September 11, 1943 to August 16, 1945

“No wisdom that she may gain by experience and reflection hereafter, will compensate the loss of her present hilarity.”

May Loss Reflection Gains Cat Hereafter Kitten Hilarity

Author:William Cowper

“Pity is often a reflection of our own evils in the ills of others. It is a delicate foresight of the troubles into which we may fall.”

May Fall Evil Trouble Reflection Pity Delicate Foresight

Author:Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“Convince us of our errors of doctrine, if we have any, by reason, by logical arguments, or by the Word of God, and we will be ever grateful for the information, and you will ever have the pleasing reflection that you have been instruments in the hands of God of redeeming your fellow beings from the darkness which you may see enveloping their minds.”

“To inquisitive minds like yours and mine the reflection that the quantity of human knowledge bears no proportion to the quantity of human ignorance must be in one view rather pleasing, viz., that though we are to live forever we may be continually amused and delighted with learning something new.”

Source: Writings, Collected and Ed. with a Life and Introd

“Mere numbers cannot bring out ... the intimate essence of the experiment. This conviction comes naturally when one watches a subject at work. ... What things can happen! What reflections, what remarks, what feelings, or, on the other hand, what blind automatism, what absence of ideas! ... The experimenter judges what may be going on in [the subject's] mind, and certainly feels difficulty in expressing all the oscillations of a thought in a simple, brutal number, which can have only a deceptive precision. How, in fact, could it sum up what would need several pages of description!”

“We are ... led to a somewhat vague distinction between what we may call "hard" data and "soft" data. This distinction is a matter of degree, and must not be pressed; but if not taken too seriously it may help to make the situation clear. I mean by "hard" data those which resist the solvent influence of critical reflection, and by "soft" data those which, under the operation of this process, become to our minds more or less doubtful.”

Source: Our Knowledge of the External World as a Field for Scientific Method in Philosophy

“Let us not be unmindful that liberty is power, that the nation blessed with the largest portion of liberty must in proportion to its numbers be the most powerful nation upon earth. Our Constitution professedly rests upon the good sense and attachment of the people. This basis, weak as it may appear, has not yet been found to fail. Always vote for a principle, though you vote alone, and you may cherish the sweet reflection that your vote is never lost. America, in the assembly of nations, has uniformly spoken among them the language of equal liberty, equal justice, and equal rights.”

“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.”

“Vocal prayer . . . must be accompanied by reflection. A prayer in which a person is not aware of Whom he is speaking to, what he is asking, who it is who is asking and of Whom, I don't call prayer-however much the lips may move.”

May Persons Moving Prayer Reflection Asking Lips Saint Vocal

Book:The Wisdom of Teresa of Avila: Selections from the Interior Castle

Source: The Wisdom of Teresa of Avila: Selections from the Interior Castle

“Thoughts turn to other's just a little more this time of year. Days grow shorter and memories grow longer. Families and friends gather in celebration or hope. Giving is a reflection of our love and caring for each other and those less fortunate. May your thoughts turn to gratitude this holiday season and carry on throughout the next year.”